Mother Sentenced to Life After Selling Daughter for £800 to Traditional Healer Who Wanted Her Light Eyes and Skin for Medicine

In a case that has horrified South Africa, a mother has been sentenced to life imprisonment after selling her six-year-old daughter to a traditional healer who allegedly wanted the child’s light eyes and fair skin for ritual purposes. Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, 35, was convicted of kidnapping and human trafficking alongside her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and friend Steveno van Rhyn.

The child, Joshlin, went missing in February 2024 from Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town. It was later revealed that Smith sold her daughter for 20,000 rand – approximately £800 – to a sangoma, a traditional healer. The court heard that Smith, who had struggled with drug addiction since her teens, would have accepted as little as £200 for her daughter.

Judge Nathan Erasmus, delivering the verdict at a packed community centre, sentenced all three to life for trafficking and ten additional years for kidnapping. “There is nothing that I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose,” he said, prompting applause from those in attendance. He stressed that he “drew no distinction” between the defendants in terms of culpability.

Joshlin’s grandmother, Amanda Smith-Daniels, has pleaded with her daughter to reveal the child’s whereabouts, saying no sentence will bring her granddaughter back. “How do you sleep \[and] live with yourself?” she asked in an emotional interview with Newzroom Afrika. Joshlin’s teacher also shared that classmates still ask about her, not understanding her sudden disappearance.

The trial, which lasted eight weeks, included disturbing testimony. A neighbour, Lorential Lombaard, said Smith admitted to selling her daughter to a sangoma and later saw her packing Joshlin’s clothes before leaving with a woman believed to be the healer. The teacher testified that Smith once claimed Joshlin was “on a ship inside a container” bound for West Africa.

Joshlin had been living with family friends due to concerns about her mother’s behaviour. Those friends had tried to adopt the girl to provide a safer home, but their efforts were blocked by relatives.

Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile has vowed the search for Joshlin will continue, stating, “We will not rest until we find [out] what happened to Joshlin. We are continuing day and night looking for her.”